Tuesday, April 15, 2008

As I was having my quiet time this morning - which has been increasingly not quiet with the addition of early-rising kids - I ran across this verse:

Joshua 9:14 - So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the Lord. (NLT)

The context of the verse is a story of the Israelites being told by God to essentially rid the land of its inhabitants. But Joshua and the Israelites, instead of following that directive, made a treaty with a deceptive group of people who were playing themselves off as a hurting nation. In fact, the nation was not hurting, but instead were afraid of what Israel would do to them. When Joshua and the people found out that they had been lied to, they were true to their word and instead of destroying the people - like God told them to - they made them servants. They were basically deceived into not following God's explicit instructions.

It made me ask the question: How often do I not consult the Lord? Do I consult the Lord as much as I should with:

My marriage

My kids

My job

My career path

My finances

The use of my spare time

My temptations

My friendships

My lack of discipline is basically all areas?

Yeah, probably not (read: DEFINITELY NOT!). It smacked me across the face in the wee hours of the morning. My wife has desired for us to pray more as a couple, but even though she keeps asking, I don't consult the Lord. I work to plan out our youth calendar and I don't consult the Lord. Even this morning I thought, "Man, I really need to set aside the first few minutes of every day at work to consult the Lord." hen when I got to work, what did I do? Flipped on the computer and started checking e-mail. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!! Why is it so difficult?!? It shouldn't be. But maybe the depth of my relationship with the Lord is not where it needs to be so that my first thought is, "Consult the Lord." Actually, not maybe, but definitely. Lord, remind me that you are there for me to consult.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

My love and profound respect for Sesame Street has been renewed overnight. It had been tarnished quite a bit since it turned into the Cult of Elmo, but I find myself loving the Land of Muppets again. It all turned around for me during a short ride home from church last night. As we were riding home, Colin - who watches Sesame Street three times a week - was yammering away in the back seat. Marcy was apparently paying better attention than I was, because she looked at me and said, "I think he just counted up to twelve." I thought she was crazy, but I started him counting, and sure enough, he counted all the way up to twelve! I'm not sure if kids are supposed to do that on the eve of their second birthday, but as far as I'm concerned, it was pretty amazing. Thank goodness for a TV show doing the job of parenting that I'm supposed to be doing!